Surprise Visitors
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: ·Storm Hawks/ Kingdom Hearts II crossover· Three people appear on the Condor out of nowhere. Right after, the Storm Hawks are attacked by things made out of shadows. Coincidence? ·Complete·
1. Strangers on the Condor

**Summary**: ·Storm Hawks/ Kingdom Hearts II crossover· Three people appear on the _Condor_ out of nowhere. Right after, the Storm Hawks are attacked by things made out of shadows. Coincidence?

No specific timeline for this, apart from that it's before the end of Kingdom Hearts II.

Thanks to Cyber09 for beta-reading. :)

* * *

**Surprise Visitors**

By Dark Ice Dragon

Strangers on the _Condor_

* * *

Aerrow raised an eyebrow, arms itching to go to his energy blades. Stork was being his usual, panicky self – but that wasn't a problem.

"Eh heh heh… Um, hi?"

The problem was that three people had just literally appeared out of nowhere on the _Condor_'s bridge. The only reason Aerrow hadn't drawn his weapons was because the strangers weren't wearing any Cyclonian uniforms. Saying that, he'd never seen the races standing in front of him – while one person was human, another resembled a duck and the other was sort of like a dog.

The human had clear blue eyes and spiky light brown hair. His clothing, while it wasn't Cyclonian, still made Aerrow a little cautious since they were mostly black. The duck was only wearing one layer of clothing that was mostly in shades of blue, and a hat. Aerrow was a little weirded out by the fact that it wasn't wearing trousers. In one of its hands was a staff that strangely had its own hat. The dog was covered in a variety of blocked colours that were mostly light but wore a small, black sleeveless jacket. It was wearing a hat with goggles strapped to it. It had a big, bright shield covering nearly its entire right arm.

Aerrow checked on his squadron from the corner of his eyes. They were tense and wary but they didn't look like they were going to attack. Stork, on the other hand, looked like he was halfway between panic and indignant anger.

Leaning a little on the table behind him, arms loose at his side, Aerrow asked them, "Who are you?"

It was the boy who spoke up first. "Well, I'm Sora," he said, pointing to himself.

"Donald." The duck nodded to them.

The dog waved at them. "The name's Goofy."

Before Aerrow could wonder if he should give his own name, someone else spoke before him. "How did you do that?" It was Piper. She was frowning at the three strangers in puzzlement.

Sora tilted his head to the side, looking confused. "How did we do what?" he asked.

"How did you get in here?" Piper clarified. "There are Crystals that can teleport one person at a time but you can see and feel when they've been used a mile off." Piper shook her head. "Not to mention you need a fixed point to teleport – it'd be nearly impossible to teleport into a ship that's moving."

Aerrow could hear the underlying message of Piper's words: if that Crystal existed, and she didn't know about it, then that would mean that Master Cyclonis had made it. If she had a Crystal that could sneak multiple people onto ships discreetly, then Sky Knights wouldn't stand a chance against her.

But… how would someone who wasn't a Talon or didn't seem to be in a squadron have such a powerful Crystal?

Sora scratched the back of his head and chuckled, smiling guilelessly at them. "We didn't-" His carefree look disappeared suddenly, his eyes sharpening on something past them. Aerrow had already drawn his blades and was jumping away when he heard something heavy hit the table behind him.

A quick glance around showed that his friends were unhurt before he focused on the table. Standing on it wasn't something that Aerrow had ever seen before. It was just over the half the length of the table and stood on four legs - its front legs were shorter than its back ones and shaped like bird's feet, while its back legs were like a cat's. It was almost entirely black apart from its purple bat wings. They started at its shoulders and were nearly the same size as it in length; he wasn't sure if it could actually fly with its bulk. Triangular spikes ran down its entire spine, down to its thick tail. Its head was shaped like a bird's with glowing yellow eyes and two spiky horns pointing backwards on the top of its head. Aerrow had enough time to see it for a second before it disappeared as wisps of dark smoke; Sora was standing next to it, a strange looking weapon in his hand. He was already on the move again before the smoke had completely gone.

There was no time to wonder how the _Condor_ had been invaded (again) because more of the things appeared. Smaller this time, with a vague similarity to a human, again all black with glowing yellow eyes. He slashed at the closest monster and stumbled when it flattened in on itself like a shadow and glided across the floor. He followed it and when it 'came up' he attacked it again. His blade felt like it hit something solid for a second before going through it like it was a piece of paper. It evaporated into nothing a second later.

"Thundara!" A flash of light. Something exploded.

The _Condor_ reared to the left. "No Lightning Crystals in the bridge!" Stork yelled over his shoulder. Stork. He didn't have any weapons to defend himself and had to control the _Condor_ too. Finn wouldn't be able to fight as well as he normally did just in case he missed and hit something the _Condor_ needed to fly with.

"Piper, Junko!" he called out. The two didn't stop fighting but the way they had their heads turned towards him, he knew they were listening. "We need to protect Stork," he ordered. Aerrow didn't say anything about Finn because he knew Finn would have just denied it and would then probably try and do something to prove that he didn't need help. The others knew that he would still need help anyway.

He rolled under a dive from the first type of creature - so it really _could_ fly. As it was turning for another run, Aerrow attacked. It took more hits than the smaller one before it turned into smoke. "You guys okay?" He'd been able to position himself closer to Stork from that; the others were already there. There was a chorus of affirmatives.

That left the other three. Another hybrid swooped down and Aerrow blocked its claws and hind-feet with his blades; it still had enough momentum to push him back a couple of inches. Its hind-feet were a lot more like a cat's than Aerrow realised – small claws were gripping the edge of the blades from under the fur. While they were struggling to get the upper hand on each other, Aerrow checked behind it. Donald was the closest to them, whacking at the shadow things with his staff; Goofy was ramming into them at the opposite side of the room. Sora was in the centre of the room taking the things down left, right and above without much pause in between. They looked like they knew exactly how to fight the things, and had been doing so for a while. Aerrow grunted as he pushed harder. In retaliation, the hybrid flapped its wings at him, and he ducked before the limbs hit him. It used the loss of resistance to shoot over him and towards Stork's unprotected back.

"No-!"

Stork heard the shout and threw himself to the side. There was a bang as the hybrid crashed into the wheel. A second later, everyone was flailing towards the starboard side as the _Condor_ swerved sharply.

Scrambling onto his feet, Aerrow fought the last of the few remaining shadow things with Junko at his back and Radarr at his shoulder for extra backup. There was another tilt of the floor when Stork righted the _Condor_.

After a few minutes, the last of the shadow things were cut down. Eyes scanning the bridge, Aerrow checked to see if any more were left. Nothing moved.

Nothing _alive_ anyway. There were naked wires dangling from the ceiling, broken pipes hissing and spewing green gasses (Junko was already making his way over to see if he could stop it), and some of the machinery were flashing with multicoloured sparks. Strewn across the floor were feathers and the papers and maps they had been working on before Sora, Donald and Goofy had appeared – most of them were trampled, torn, or both. Dotted across the walls were blast marks of various sizes. Surprisingly, the table was still in tact.

"Man," Finn muttered beside him, "this place is totally trashed."

Aerrow nodded, and then shook his head. Stork wasn't going to take this well and that was an understatement. From where he was standing, he could see the tremors running down Stork's body. They would either have to take Stork off the ship (a bit hard when they were still flying) and fix the _Condor_ themselves (also a bit hard since Stork knew the most about the ship) or let Stork keep on driving and then let him do most of the repairs (and face a possible breakdown before or after they anchored).

He walked up to the pilot, making sure that Stork could see him coming. "You gonna be okay, Stork?" he asked Stork. Behind him, he could hear things being shuffled about as they were being cleared up.

"Oh, I'm fine," Stork said quickly and a little shrilly. "Absolutely fine, nothing wrong," he continued. "I mean, we haven't just lost our mobility by thirty percent not to mention, half our doors are malfunctioning meaning we could be trapped in this area of the _Condor_, just waiting to be picked off by those things!"

"Whoa, whoa." Aerrow held up a hand, hoping that Stork would slow down. "What do you mean, 'half our doors are malfunctioning?'" He could understand why mobility was down if the wheel had been hit, but how had the doors been affected?

"It's because - " The lights flickered. Stork sighed. "They're in the engine room and generator room," he said in a low tone.

That... was not good. The lights flickered again, and this time, took longer to stabilise.

"Of course, if we aren't eaten first," Stork said, his voice apparently brightening, "they'll probably destroy the generator and we'll die in an explosion as the _Condor_ crashes into the Wasteland."

"Hey!" Turning around, Aerrow could see it was Donald who had spoken up. He had his arms crossed and was glaring at Stork's back. "We aren't going to die here so stop saying that."

Aerrow latched onto the interruption. "Donald's right; we need to stop them before they do any more damage." He thought about the brief glimpse that he'd seen of the newcomer's skills. "Junko – stay here and see what you can patch up." He sent him a meaningful look to also keep an eye on Stork.

"Got it."

"Piper, Donald – you go up to the generator room. See if you can get it working properly."

"Okay."

"Wait, you're splitting us up?" Sora asked, stepping forward.

Aerrow nodded curtly. "You don't know your way around the _Condor_ like we do." He faced the next group. "Finn, Goofy – you're going to the engine room. Protect it as best as you can."

"Will do."

"Uh-huh."

Aerrow looked at Sora. "Sora, Radarr – you're with me." Radarr saluted. He nodded to everyone. "Move out." It was only when the other two groups had left that Aerrow started moving. He did one last sweep of the bridge and left.

"So, where're we going?" Sora asked as he followed him. His eyes were wandering up and down the corridor, taking everything in, sometimes pausing on a few things but never for too long.

"We're going to be checking if those shadow things - "

"Heartless," Sora corrected him.

"Heartless," Aerrow repeated, trying the word out. So Sora knew what they were. And they appeared right after Sora and his friends did. So had the heartless come because Sora came, or was it the other way around? What kind of name was 'heartless' anyway? "We're going to be checking if those heartless are anywhere else on the ship, especially about the hangar bay."

Sora nodded in acknowledgement.

Aerrow listened carefully to the _Condor_ as they hurried. She sounded the same as she always did and he didn't hear any scrape of claws on metal. He checked on Radarr; he looked up at his friend and shook his head. He couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary either.

"Do you fight heartless often?"

Sora half-shrugged. "Yeah. They appear quite a lot." He peered curiously at Aerrow. "Is this the first time you've seen anything like them?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm." Sora frowned thoughtfully and tapped the side of his lip with a finger. "You haven't heard of any rumours recently that might be about the heartless?"

"No," Aerrow answered, after thinking about it for a few seconds. They hadn't really heard from anyone lately. That was either a good sign (there was no trouble anywhere) or a bad one (the other Sky Knights and their squadrons had been captured or worse). He was hoping it was a good sign.

They made the rest of the way to the hanger bay in silence, ready to defend themselves if something jumped out at them. Nothing did. When they were a few steps away from their destination, the _Condor_ shook – not enough to overbalance them but just long and hard enough to be felt. They paused, waiting. Aerrow couldn't pinpoint exactly where the shudder had had come from but since they weren't plastered to the ceiling, it at least meant that nothing important had been hit too badly.

Pressing the door pad, he was relieved to see the door sliding open. They peeked around the door frame but nothing moved.

"Woah," Sora whispered when he caught sight of the skimmers. Aerrow felt pride well up at his reaction. He stepped into the hangar to check any hiding places. The doors leading outside were still closed but seeing as the heartless got in in the first place, that really didn't mean much.

Through the hangar bay was the best way of getting into the _Condor_. Did that mean that the heartless had come in the same way as Sora? But where had they (Sora and his friends and the heartless) come from? If there was something that had been developed that could teleport things right onto ships, why hadn't anyone known about it?

A few minutes later, Aerrow, Radarr and Sora left the hanger bay having found nothing. Aerrow decided to take another, much longer route to the bridge; that part of the _Condor_ may have been clear of heartless but that didn't mean that the rest of her was.

xOx

"Hey," Aerrow greeted as he walked into the bridge. Junko looked away from the pipe he was mending and smiled. Stork was at the wheel, muttering incessantly under his breath. "How's the _Condor_?" The bridge was looking better – most of the pipes were attached together and the consoles weren't sparking as much. Piper and Donald were tidying up the papers on the table. They didn't seem any more injured than the last time he'd seen them.

Junko shrugged. "We can fix most of the damage here but it's really the generator that we have to worry about."

Piper nodded. "I was able to fix it up as best as I could but..." she trailed off and shrugged.

"It took a lot of damage," Donald continued for her. "The heartless had taken chunks out of it before we got there."

One of Stork's ears swivelled in their direction. "Did you say... heartless?"

"Yeah...?" Donald answered, surprised. "You heard of them?"

"I've heard of them," Stork confirmed slowly, "but I can't remember much about them." He paused. "I'll do some research once we reach Saharr."

Just then, Finn and Goofy came through the door. Finn was grinning. "The engine room's clear. They didn't stand a chance with my aim," he preened.

Aerrow shot Goofy a sympathetic look. He hoped Finn hadn't been too bad. Goofy merely smiled back. "We're going to Terra Saharr," he informed them. He crossed his arms and looked at the three strangers. "Before we get there, will you tell us about yourselves, what you're doing here and what you know about these heartless?"

The three shared a look. "Well... We'll try."

* * *

And that's the first chapter done. Hope you enjoyed it. I haven't got any set times for when I update this fic, so we'll see how well this goes.

Standard disclaimer for all my fics: in my author notes at the end of every chapter, don't take me too seriously when I start complaining about whatever I've written because there's always going to be something that bugs me in it and it's rare when there isn't anything that annoys me. You have been warned. :)


	2. Shopping

**Summary**: ·Storm Hawks/ Kingdom Hearts II crossover· Three people appear on the _Condor_ out of nowhere. Right after, the Storm Hawks are attacked by things made out of shadows. Coincidence?

Okay, guess I _do_ have a timeline for this - probably up to the most recent episode out for Storm Hawks (episode 26) and _right_ before Sora, Donald and Goofy go into the World That Never Was.

Thanks again to Cyber09 for beta-reading. :) Thanks to all the people who reviewed, added this fic to their favs or story alerts also. :)

* * *

**Surprise Visitors**

By Dark Ice Dragon

Shopping

* * *

"Heartless are... they're beings without hearts," Sora started. Without hearts? Aerrow's mind repeated. Did he mean that in the metaphorical sense or the literal sense? "They're born when a person's heart becomes overwhelmed by darkness. When that happens, the person dies and a heartless is born from their heart. That heartless is attracted to the darkness in other people's hearts and if it gets someone's heart..." Sora shook his head. "Then that person'll turn into a heartless too."

Aerrow paled.

"Wait, so what we've just been fighting... they were _people?_" Piper said, stunned.

"Kinda," Goofy admitted, looking down. He looked up again after a second. "They don't remember bein' who they were before they changed into heartless."

Donald nodded. "All their instincts are to eat a person's heart."

That was a bit comforting, but not by a lot. It didn't change that they used to be people in the first place. Aerrow shook his head. So they knew more about the heartless now but not about the trio. "Why are you here?" he asked them again.

Sora's shoulders slumped a little bit. "We're trying to find friends of ours. We got separated a while ago and we've been looking for them since then." He was silent for a while, frowning and staring into the distance. "We met someone who knows where Riku is, but he wouldn't tell us." He sighed and shook his head.

"He made a promise to Riku not to tell, Sora," Goofy admonished him.

Sora rubbed the back on his neck. "Yeah, I know," he said quietly.

"I'm sure you'll find him," Junko reassured them.

Sora seemed to cheer up at that and gave him a bright grin. "I _know_ we will," he said confidently. "It's only a matter of time before we do."

The bridge was relatively quiet for the next few minutes as they righted what things they could and tidied away or binned what they couldn't. It was when Aerrow passed Donald's staff and Goofy's shield leaning on the wall while carrying a box of broken metal parts that he stopped. They must have put them there so they wouldn't be in the way, but where was Sora's weapon? Now that he thought about it, he remembered that he hadn't seen Sora carrying the weapon when they first appeared (Aerrow reminded himself to ask them how they got on the _Condor_ when they were finished) and a hilt hadn't been poking out from behind him either. He glanced in Sora's direction – he was currently helping to sweep up the feathers with his back to Aerrow. No sign of the sword. He started walking again as his arms began to protest about carrying the weight. After he set the box down at the far wall, he searched for it again but he couldn't see it. Huh, weird.

"Hey, Sora?" Aerrow called as he walked up behind the other boy. Sora looked away from the bundle of feathers in his arms. "Where's your sword?"

"My sword?" Sora repeated. He looked down at the bag Donald was holding open for him and dumped the feathers inside. A couple of the feathers made a break for freedom by clearing the lip while others somehow found a bit of wind and flew upwards. Sora made a wild grab for them but missed all of them. "It comes out when it's needed."

Aerrow raised an eyebrow. A Crystal that could teleport multiple people, a Crystal that could make a weapon disappear. What else could their Crystals do? Where were they from that could make them so powerful? "What other Crystals have you got?"

A blink. "Um, Crystals?"

The sound of work stopped behind him. "Wait, you don't know what a Crystal is?" Piper asked, shocked, her eyes wide. He could understand how she felt. Crystals powered _everything_, least of all, ships. If they didn't know what Crystals were, then their terra must have been completely isolated from the very beginning. Even Vapos still used a few Crystals. So, if they didn't know what they were, how _had_ they gotten into the _Condor_?

"I know what a Crystal is," Sora said semi-defensively," but I didn't know what you meant."

Which meant that they knew what a Crystal physically was, but not what they could do. What did they use as a power source for their machinery and ships if they didn't use Crystals? How did they power up their weapons? Wait... Aerrow looked at Donald. "You have to know what a Crystal is – you used one in the fight."

Donald shook his head. "I didn't use a Crystal," he denied. "I used..." He trailed off in surprise. "Oh."

"You mean magic?" Goofy asked them.

Aerrow looked at them in bafflement. No, not magic. Maybe they just had a different name for some things. "We might be talking about the same thing here," he said carefully. "How do you use magic?"

Now it was their turn to look baffled. "Uh..." Donald tapped his foot as he thought. "I have to learn the spell first. Then when I need to cast the spell, I concentrate to collect enough magic for it." He shrugged helplessly. "I say the name of the spell and then it happens. I don't know how to explain it!" he protested, seeing the incomprehensive looks on their faces. "I can just do it."

So... they didn't use Crystals and they used some sort of energy from their own bodies instead. Were they part Crystal or something? That didn't make any sense!

"How big's your terra?" Piper asked suddenly.

"Hmm?" Sora looked at her. "It's... kinda small, I guess." His eyes were wandering out the window as a flock of birds decided to fly next to them.

Piper nodded to herself. "It makes sense." She turned to the rest of the Storm Hawks to explain. "They probably have a mine of Blocking Crystals right underneath them. That's why they don't know about Crystals – if there were enough of them, it'd stop all the Crystals on that terra from working, even if they're raw."

And if it was small enough, Aerrow's mind added, it would make it harder to find the terra. They had proof that not all terras were mapped, or had been 'lost'. So with no contact with other people and Crystals unable to work there, they must have made their own technology to compensate for it. It could also explain the two different races.

Did that mean they'd flown right over their home terra? Aerrow wondered if Sora and the others had ever been off their home terra. If they hadn't, how were they going to get them back home? Not to mention, if they _did_ find their terra and dropped them off, would the _Condor_ or their skimmers be able to leave the ground again?

xOx

The three newcomers had been staring out the window for the entire trip, faces pressed up near the glass. It didn't seem to bother Stork which was a little strange, but Aerrow let it be. The rest of the Storm hawks were dotted around the _Condor_, cleaning up what else they could before arriving on Saharr. Aerrow was watching the three of the bridge for any kind of deception but so far, they really did seem like they hadn't flown before. A few other ships had passed them going in the opposite direction and the way the three had tracked their movement, it seemed like they'd never seen ships like them before. But... Aerrow hated to admit it but they'd been fooled by Master Cyclonis before so this time, he was going to be a bit more careful.

"We're nearing Saharr," Stork informed him, his eyes not leaving the horizon. He had seem to calm down the longer the trip went and the fact that nothing else had popped up either.

"Gawrsh," Goofy said, pointing to the distance. "Is that it there?"

Aerrow took a few steps forwards and squinted at the clouds. Just poking above the clouds was terra Saharr. It'd taken them only a few more minutes to get there now if they could see it.

"Yeah."

"Your... terras are up this high?" Sora asked, surprised. His hands were braced on the glass as he tried to get a closer look.

Stork shuddered, but the _Condor_ didn't stray from her course. "Underneath the cloud line is the Wastelands," he told them. "Molten lava and elephant ants among other treacherous monsters lurk there. Not many people who fly down there come back up," he warned, voice low.

Except they'd gone down there a few times and lived to tell about it, Aerrow thought with a smile.

xOx

Even though Aerrow knew about the Saharr heat, it still caught him off guard when the humid air blasted in as soon as they lowered the ramp. Sand swirled in after it, some of it catching his cheek before he could duck. Even from this distance away from the bazaar, he could hear some of the people trying to sell their wares.

"All right," Aerrow said, turning to face his friends. "You know what parts you need to find. We'll meet back here in two hours with the parts we've bought and then we'll all try to find whatever parts we don't have." He nodded to them. "See you in two hours." Sora, Donald and Goofy had been split up again – this time, Goofy was partnered with him. Radarr had flat out refused to come out, because the last time they'd been here, he'd still been picking sand out his fur two weeks later. There was also the fact that his fur in general made the heat worse for him anyway.

A few minutes later, the Storm Hawks went their separate ways into the bustling streets. Aerrow wondered how Sora would be in the heat considering he was wearing nearly all black and that he was already pulling on his collar before they'd split up. Which wasn't to say Goofy wasn't going to have problems either, Aerrow thought, looking at him from the corner of his eyes, but the black fur was only showing on his arms and part of his face – which his hat kind of covered, depending on what way it flopped. His clothing would help keep him cool though, since they were baggy, and was part of the reason why he wasn't completely worried about Sora either.

They'd arrived just after two, which was good because they'd passed the hottest part of the day and now it would get cooler, even little by little.

"There's a lot of shops here," Goofy noted as he twisted his head to get a better look at everything.

Aerrow neatly stepped out of the way of someone's path. "Terra Saharr has the largest amount of shops in the one place," he explained. He ducked under another person's wild gesture. "If you can't find it here, you probably won't find it anywhere else in Atmos." He checked where his foot was going just before two cats ran underneath it. Moving about in here was an exercise in itself. "Not easily anyway," he amended.

Goofy looked doubtfully at the list in his hand as they moved. "I don't think I know what these look like," he admitted.

Aerrow smiled at him. "It's fine, he reassured him. "I don't think people who aren't involved with Sky Knights would know either." He took a deep breath as he thought about the things they had to find and then decided against it. He led Goofy to a quiet, shady area and then looked at the list. "Okay, reflector plates are about this big..."

xOx

For the first hour, they couldn't find a single item on their list when Aerrow spotted one of them. It looked like it was about ten seconds away from teetering over the edge of the stall.

"Hey, how much is this?" he asked the merchant, holding the dual fans up.

The man looked at it speculatively and named his price. It was a little on the high side compared to the price on the list but that was expected – finding what you wanted was half the battle here while the other half was haggling the price down. Five minutes later, Aerrow was carrying his purchase in a box feeling distinctively pleased with himself; he'd gotten the fans a lot cheaper than what Junko had on the list.

"Do you need help with that?" Goofy asked him as they walked away from the stall.

"Hn?" He adjusted his grip on the corners to something more comfortable. "It's okay – I got it," he said, shaking his head. That only left two relatively small items on the list to find.

Another hour later, Aerrow and Goofy carried their items back to the _Condor_, having just found everything they were supposed to in time. Junko, Finn, Sora and Donald were already there, some of them wrestling with whatever they'd bought onto the _Condor_ while Radarr helped with the light stuff. Still, they were laughing.

A quick question revealed that the rest had found all that they'd needed to as well, so now all they had to do was wait for Piper and Stork to come back. It was only a few minutes later that they appeared, purchases in tow. From the look on Piper's face, something hasn't gone according to plan. Much of Stork's face couldn't be seen under the large hat he was wearing.

"What's up?" he asked them once they got closer.

"It's the convertor coils," Piper said unhappily. "They've been upgraded over the years now so the ones that the _Condor_ uses are different from the ones you can buy now – she can't use those ones because she's wired differently." She sighed as she and Stork tugged the hovertrolley onto the _Condor_. "The type the _Condor_ uses is out of production and we have to pay _three_ times as much to buy it." After bringing it onboard, Stork swiftly left, muttering about getting a sterile shower and medicine for the rash on his hands.

Three-! The convertor coils were one of the most expensive items on the list and they thought that the money they had would only just cover it all.

"Looks like we're going to have to get some jobs then," Aerrow said out loud, with a grimace. He didn't mind Saharr, really, but it was a little bit too hot for him sometimes.

"Can we help?" Sora asked. "With getting the money," he elaborated. "I mean, we _did_ do some of the damage too, so it'd only be fair."

Aerrow considered it. If they did help with making the money, then he and the others wouldn't be able to keep an eye on them. On the other hand, if he refused their help, they would then stay on the _Condor_ and he would have to have someone watch them, slowing down their progress making money. Even then, that one person wouldn't be able to watch all of them at the same time.

He made his decision and nodded. "You can help."

The three visitors grinned at him. Aerrow turned to face the bazaar again. Now all they had to do was find some willing people to pay them.

* * *

Trying to explain how magic works is soooo much fun. (rolls eyes)

(snerk) Much head-shaking.

A wordy chapter for me.

:) See you the next time I post the next chapter.


	3. Travelling

**Summary**: ·Storm Hawks/ Kingdom Hearts II crossover· Three people appear on the _Condor_ out of nowhere. Right after, the Storm Hawks are attacked by things made out of shadows. Coincidence?

Thanks again to Cyber09 for beta-reading. :) Thanks to all the people who reviewed, added this fic to their favs or story alerts also. :)

* * *

**Surprise Visitors**

By Dark Ice Dragon

Travelling

* * *

Two days later, after finally managing to get enough money together for the converter coils, Aerrow found Stork reading a thin weathered book on the bridge.

"What are you reading, Stork?" he asked before approaching. It was habit that made him speak before going near Stork and his reading material – discovering from first-hand experience just what some of his books could do once was enough. Aerrow was sure that everyone else was in bed after working constantly over the last couple of days. They had actually been able to make some surplus from all the jobs they'd done. The sun had set a while ago so the only light was coming from the _Condor_.

Stork waved the cover at him but all Aerrow could see was some sort of gold design on faded red; there wasn't any writing on it that he could see. "It's an old book that I've been trying to find," mumbled Stork as he leafed through the pages. "I know I've heard of heartless before but where–" He stopped and started at something on the page in front of him. "I _knew_ I'd heard of them somewhere!" he crowed triumphantly.

Coming up beside him, Aerrow peered at the book over Stork's shoulder. Drawn in a corner with the text weaving around it was a picture of the smaller, humanoid heartless they'd fought. Aerrow's eyes slid to the title of the page. "The Keyblade Master and the Heartless," he said out loud. He skim-read the first three paragraphs before looking at Stork in confusion. "Is this a fairytale?"

Stork nodded. "That's why I couldn't find the heartless in any of my other books – I think I've only read this story once and haven't found it anywhere else." He turned over the page and Aerrow left him to it after saying goodnight. Stork would tell them about it in the morning.

xOx

Aerrow rolled his shoulders to get some of the feeling back in them as he walked into the bridge – at some point in the night, his arm had ended up above his head for much too long and he'd woken up with a very tingly arm. Not the best way to wake up, but other than that, he'd gotten a good night's sleep. Radarr wasn't exactly helping by sitting on his shoulder either.

"Morning," Piper greeted from the table with a smile. Only Sora, Donald and Goofy were there and they nodded to him when they saw him; Finn and Junko liked to sleep in when they could and Stork didn't usually get a lot of sleep – he'd either be reading a book for most of the night or watching everything in his room from his bed. It would depend on the day if he left his room early or not. Breakfast was sizzling on a variety of plates and the smell made Aerrow feel even hungrier.

"Morning," he replied as he sat down and grabbed a plate. Radarr jumped off and started stuffing his face instantly.

They talked about general stuff before the others wandered in, rubbing their eyes and yawning in Finn and Junko's case, or warily checking everything in the room in Stork's case. The red book was still under his arm.

After sitting down and sifting through his breakfast to make sure that there weren't any filsa parasites hidden in there, he looked at Sora and his friends from the corner of his eyes. "Have you heard of someone called a 'Keyblade Master'?"

Sora choked on whatever he was eating and had to thump himself of the chest to get it back up. He shook his head and swallowed all the drink in his cup. "No." But after seeing Sora and the others so surprised by Stork's question, Aerrow didn't believe him. "Where did you hear that name?" His voice was still a little hoarse.

"It's from _old_ folklore," Stork said, eyes drawn to the book he'd placed on the table. "There's no other mention of heartless or the Keyblade Master anywhere else." He opened the book. "Maybe they were destroyed to hide that they ever existed."

"Was the person who wrote that called Ansem?" Donald asked, standing on his chair to get a better look.

Stork shook his head. "Magpie. He'd researched legends over four-hundred years ago that were thought to be lost back then, wrote 'One-Hundred Different Ways to Survive in a Booby-Trapped Temple' and also-"

"Stork," Aerrow interrupted, holding up a hand. "What did you find out about the heartless and the Keyblade Master?" he said, steering the topic back on track. In his peripheral vision, Aerrow could see Sora, Donald and Goofy fidgeting slightly. What were they hiding and why? Okay, he knew that they were hiding knowing about that 'Keyblade Master' and that they hadn't told everything they knew connected with the heartless, but why had they done that? Was it because it would take too long to explain or for another reason?

"Right. There wasn't anything about the heartless except that when they got too close to a person, that person disappeared and a heartless appeared in their place." Stork thumbed through the pages before he found what he was looking for. "That's how the story starts," he explained, voice lowering. "The heartless were growing in number day by day," he said slowly, "and the people were getting terrified – who knew who would be–"

"We get the picture," Finn cut in. "What happened after that?"

Unperturbed by another interruption, Stork continued and turned the page. "That's when the Keyblade Master arrived. Ordinary weapons didn't work against the heartless but hers did."

"Wha-?" Sora started, nearly dropping his fork. "_Hers?_"

"Hers," Stork confirmed. "The Keyblade Master was finally able to drive the heartless away after months of fighting," he said, easily settling back into the story telling, used to being interrupted. "But there was someone behind the heartless. There's no explanation for _how_ the person was controlling them," he muttered, frowning, "but he was. At the end, the controller was overwhelmed by 'the darkness in his heart' and he became insane – before the Keyblade Master killed him." A pause. "Probably a nasty way to go," he added.

Silence.

"Hey, do you think someone's controlling the heartless now?" Finn asked around the spoon and food in his mouth.

It was only a story though – there would be parts that never happened, or exaggerated to make the story more interesting, Aerrow thought doubtfully. But the base elements of the story –the heartless, Keyblade Master, and the controller- maybe _did_ exist – they had solid proof that the heartless did and Sora, Donald and Goofy knew at least something about the Keyblade Master, so why shouldn't a controller exist?

"There might be," Stork agreed, closing the book, "but all the fairytale says is that the controller had 'welcomed darkness and shadows into his heart and it granted him power over the heartless.'"

A few people popped into Aerrow's mind who could do that, all of them Cyclonians. Master Cyclonis was, obviously, at the top of the list while Dark Ace came a very close second. Cyclonian activity _had_ been pretty quiet recently but Aerrow had been hoping that they weren't doing anything; if either of them was a controller, then maybe they'd been laying low to plan what they were going to do with the heartless.

"All right, hands up if you think Master Cyclonis is the controller here," Finn said, raising his hand. Five other hands rose in the air to join his straight away.

Stork pushed the food around on his plate and sighed. "Which means we'll be going into Cyclonian territory, facing unspeakable terrors even before we get into Cyclonia where we'll probably be caught and who knows what they would do to us then."

Now they had the problem of figuring out how to actually sneak into Cyclonia without being found. "Do you think we should use the _Condor_ like we did last time?" Aerrow asked around the table.

Junko shook his head. "I dunno – they'll know what the _Condor_ looks like now and it's pretty hard to hide her."

Stork heaved a sigh of relief.

"That means we'll have to go in by skimmer," Piper said worriedly. "If we leave from terra... Avalon and go from terra to terra, buying Fuel Crystals at each one, we could possibly sneak in that way." She chewed on the inside of her lip. "Still, we'll need a lot of Nitro Crystals so it doesn't take too long, change our clothes and our skimmers so we won't be recognised," she stated, counting off her fingers.

"We can get the Crystals and clothes at Avalon," Aerrow told her. "We've got enough money to spare. We can modify our skimmers before we get there."

"Can we come?" Goofy asked them, speaking up.

Aerrow gazed at him a little doubtfully. There were good fighters, that was for sure, and the Storm Hawks would need as much help as they could get, but they had helped quite a bit already when they didn't really have to. Didn't they want to go home? They hadn't talked about their home terra the entire time they'd been with them and hadn't seemed that worried either. Maybe they were enjoying seeing something other than their own terra to be.

If the Storm Hawks took them with them, they'd be slowed down because of the extra weight, but not by much. One part of him worried that they hadn't fought Cyclonians before but the other part argued that they'd be okay. It would be harder to sneak into Cyclonia with more people but not impossible, and if Master Cyclonis was controlling the heartless, she'd be even harder to beat.

"Are you sure you wanna come?" he asked him. "We don't even know if Master Cyclonis _is_ controlling the heartless."

Donald nodded resolutely. "Yup. We have to make sure."

Aerrow could see a few questioning looks being shot towards the trio but he didn't call Donald on it. He glanced at Stork, who'd finished eating breakfast and was discretely looking at everyone's plates to check that there wasn't anything that wasn't supposed to be there. "Stork," he said, trying to get his attention, "when you're done, head for terra Avalon." They couldn't drop them off at a terra while they tried to get into Cyclonia and it really was for the best. Stork mumbled distractedly and nodded.

xOx

Half a day later, the _Condor_ landed on terra Avalon. By then, the Storm Hawks' skimmers had been modified so that they weren't displaying the Storm Hawks symbol and their engines tweaked so that they could handle carrying some more weight better. Piper had also plotted out the fastest route that they could take by skimmer: they would need to land on three terras on the way there and then four on the way back. They would have an hour on each terra to rest after an average of four hours of flying on the skimmers - that should give them enough time to grab something to eat, buy extra Crystals, and stretch their limbs after the long flight. After reaching terra Tartarus, they'd rest for the night before leaving in the morning to head for Cyclonia.

The biggest problem of this was, of course, it would leave them without backup for the entire trip there and back. It would have to be a stealth mission all the way through. Aerrow marginally hoped that Master Cyclonis _was_ controlling the heartless because if she wasn't, they'd have risked their lives and three days for nothing.

Sora, Donald and Goofy had gotten a crash course in how to drive the skimmers and had been able to get a few hours practice as they travelled to Avalon. They'd learned quickly (though Donald had had a few problems with his height – he'd eventually given up and was happy to just watch) and then someone had started a game of keep away and the only reason why they'd cut it short was because of a heavy fog had rolled in, bringing a mini monsoon with it. It was after that that Aerrow realised another good thing about them coming – it would stop them from becoming too tired if they could rotate drivers at every terra. Still, it was going to be cramped on the skimmers to say the least.

Aerrow eyed the sun when he walked out. It was late afternoon now but what they wanted to get were easy to find and relatively cheap so it wouldn't take too long. They'd have to be a bit careful though, since this was right on the edge of Cyclonian territory. Then they'd go back to the _Condor_ to sleep before the mission started properly.

xOx

Aerrow shook his leg, his foot feeling weird with the new shoes. In general, he felt weird not wearing his traditional uniform and from the constant pats and prods he was seeing, he wasn't the only one. They were mostly clothes in dull reds and browns, and the clothes weren't as form-fitting as what he was used to. Stork was in his regular clothes but he wasn't going to be leaving the _Condor_ anyway.

There was a shudder and Aerrow braced himself as the _Condor_ took off. They'd fly for half-an-hour, skirting Cyclonian territory, just in case they were being watched by someone (or multiple people) on Avalon, and then Stork would drop them off and fly back into Atmosian sky.

He took a calming breath, watching the clouds move. Half-an-hour to go.

xOx

Aerrow fell onto the bed, making it creak dangerously but it didn't break, thankfully. Even if it had, he'd have just lain there, not caring. The pillow smelt of smoke, he thought, a little dazed, smoke and... mint, he decided.

Someone flopped into the bed next to his and he heard a groan of happiness. "I am _not_ leaving this." Finn's voice was muffled by the pillow. "I don't care if we're attacked during the night, I'm getting a good night's sleep." Sora had already fallen asleep on top of the covers, a content smile on his lips.

His arms felt stiff and he was grateful they'd bought the thick woollen jumpers or else they would have been frozen too. Aerrow forced himself to move and take off his shoes. Then he crawled under the covers and fell asleep straight away.

Waking up the next morning was painful. It was a little disorientating to see red light filtering in through the window instead of sunlight and for a second, he had no idea where he was.

He hadn't been flying constantly for that long before, even if there were breaks in between. His arms felt worse than when he went to sleep but not as bad as he thought it would be. Aerrow dragged himself out of bed, Radarr growling at the loss of the blanket, and moved to the shower. The shower soothed a little of the aches in his arms and legs and helped him to wake up by the time it had finished. Now all he had to do was wake up the snoring lumps on the other beds, check on the others and continue with travelling to Cyclonia. Easy. As if knowing what he was thinking, Finn curled up into a ball. Aerrow snorted and started to fill a glass that the inn had left in the room with cold water, grinning to himself.

The resulting yell probably woke up all the people in the building.  


* * *

This is the fastest I've churned out a chapter in _years_. :)

Hopefully the way they sneak in still goes in with common sense.

I've got most of the last chapter done (yeah, this is only four chapters long), but the last bit might take a bit of time.

:) See you the next time I post the next chapter.


	4. Friendship

**Summary**: ·Storm Hawks/ Kingdom Hearts II crossover· Three people appear on the _Condor_ out of nowhere. Right after, the Storm Hawks are attacked by things made out of shadows. Coincidence?

Thanks to Cyber09 for beta-reading. :) Thanks to all the people who reviewed, added this fic to their favs or story alerts also. :)

* * *

**Surprise Visitors**

By Dark Ice Dragon

Friendship

* * *

Aerrow was thankful that Talon uniform was 'one size fits all' because trying to find the different sizes that would fit Piper to Goofy would have been a nightmare in most circumstances, and especially now when they were trying to get things done as fast as possible.

They'd been able to sneak in a while ago and just gotten all the Talon uniforms for everyone. All that was left to do was reach the upper levels and try and find Master Cyclonis. He waved at the others to start moving.

xOx

He sighed in relief as he, Donald and Junko finished dragging the patrol into an empty room. All the other patrols had either nodded to them or ignored them as they walked past. He was surprised it had taken that long for someone to question the fact that one of them wasn't exactly very tall. Maybe they'd gotten used to Master Cyclonis' height or something.

By the time the door hissed shut, Finn and Goofy had caught up with them. That was okay because Aerrow was starting to recognise where they were - it was near where they'd been the first time the Storm Hawks had come here.

Just as Piper and Sora came around the corner on their right, Dark Ace rounded the corner on their left. Finn squeaked something that could have been 'eep'. Dark Ace didn't look any different from normal as far as Aerrow could see. Just ignore him, he told himself. You're just a Talon to him so he won't even glance at you.

Dark Ace stopped in front of them and snorted. "Storm Hawks," he greeted with a tilt of his head. "And friends," he added after taking a closer look at their number. Or he would notice and know exactly who you are, Aerrow thought with a wince. He drew his blades and regarded Dark Ace warily. With a shout, they would be completely surrounded and they wouldn't even know if Master Cyclonis was able to control the heartless or not.

Dark Ace's gaze slid to Aerrow's left and he seemed to freeze for a second. "Will that kill her?" he asked softly. Confused, Aerrow looked to see who was behind him: Piper and Sora. Tracking his eyes, he realized that Dark Ace was looking at Sora's sword.

Sora lifted it up and stared at it a little sadly. "It'll depend on how strong her heart is," he said. Aerrow had a distinct feeling that he was missing something. "If the darkness in her heart gets too strong, then the heartless'll turn on her." Sora's gaze was fixed on Dark Ace.

"I see." He was quiet for a few seconds before speaking again. "Turn on the first right, go down the corridor and it's the room on the second left – that's where she'll be."

Aerrow could feel his jaw drop. There was something _very_ weird going on. Before he could catch his bearings, Dark Ace had walked past them.

"Wait!"

Dark Ace stopped and looked over his shoulder, seeming bored.

"Don't you _care?_" Aerrow demanded in disbelief. He didn't know why he was so stunned that the Dark Ace would turn on Master Cyclonis (especially since he had betrayed the original Storm Hawks) but-

His thoughts were quelled by the cold look Dark Ace sent him. There was a touch of a sneer on his lips. "That is _not_ the Master Cyclonis I swore allegiance to." He didn't wait for a response, turned around and started walking again.

Aerrow was at a loss of words. Stork had said that the controller had lost their sanity, so maybe Master Cyclonis was going the same way. But the Dark Ace... And why had his attention been on Sora's sword?

Only Piper, Radarr and Sora were still standing there with him – most of the others were already around the corner. Aerrow sheathed his blades and jogged after them, legs protesting.

A few minutes later, they stopped outside the door that Dark Ace had directed them to. Aerrow wanted to believe that it was a trap but what Dark Ace had said afterwards didn't seem right. Shaking his head to clear his mind, Aerrow opened the door and ran in.

The room was completely empty, unfurnished by anything. Master Cyclonis was standing next to the wall the furthest from the door, her back to them. Red light shone in from the large window she was staring out of. The room was unnaturally dark, which Aerrow found a little unnerving. He glanced up and saw that the lights in the room were actually on. It wasn't as if the lights were off but more like looking at the room through a pair of sunglasses. She didn't move when they entered.

"She's controlling the heartless," Sora murmured. "Look closely at her shoulders."

Aerrow did, not sure what he was supposed to be looking for. It was because she was standing in front of the window that he saw the wisps of smoke –or shadow- that rose from her shoulders. Okay, they'd confirmed that she was controlling the heartless but now-

"Welcome, Keyblade Master." Her voice cut through the silence, the mocking tone in her voice still there.

There was a swirl of light and Sora's sword was back in his hand. Sora stepped forward. "We're here to stop you, Master Cyclonis." Well, _that_ answered a lot of questions.

Master Cyclonis laughed and turned around. She seemed darker without looking that different somehow; Aerrow guessed it was because of the dimness of the room and the shadow that was coming from her. Aerrow wasn't sure if it was because of the lighting but she seemed paler (which made no sense to what he'd just thought before), her cheekbones more pronounced, and it looked like she had dark rings under her eyes. She flicked her wrist at them and the door behind them hissed shut. Aerrow's stomach plummeted. He was sure she hadn't been able to do that before, and she wasn't using a Crystal either.

"I hope this is an interesting fight." She looked at them through lowered eyelids and then the shadows shifted, condensed into heartless. In a second, Aerrow had drawn his blades and attacked the closest heartless to him. They were the same as the ones that attacked them in the Condor, just more of them. A _lot_ more.

There was a screech in front of him and Aerrow was only able to duck in time. Unfortunately, he didn't see one of the smaller ones and it barrelled into him from the side. Most of the air in his lungs came out in a whoosh when he landed on the floor. It was on his chest, its glowing eyes staring down at him. One of its antennae twitched and Aerrow wondered when the window had been opened; it was getting cold.

There was a familiar flash of blue and the heartless disappeared. Finn appeared in his field of vision. "Don't tell me a little thing like that knocked you out!" he exclaimed incredulously. Aerrow's breath was coming better now, and warmth was spreading back to his limbs. What had been happening? Finn was already back on the move, his crossbow a blur. Radarr threw him his blades and scurried up to his shoulder, watching him warily. Was that what it felt like to be turned into a heartless?

Aerrow took a step back to dodge a swipe from a flying heartless and then stabbed it. It shrieked and disappeared. "I'm all right," he reassured Radarr. He heard a growl in his ear. "I _am._" Apart from the fact that he was feeling a little shaken at the experience and his limbs still weren't working as well as he wanted them to.

The floor seemed like it was moving under his feet – Aerrow jumped before two heartless appeared under him. He kicked out at one and Radarr leaped on the other. Quickly scanning the room, Aerrow could see the others were doing fine. How did the saying go? 'Don't fight the arrows; aim for the archer'. Something like that. Master Cyclonis was still exactly where she had been; she hadn't even moved her head. Maybe she needed to use all her concentration to control the heartless – it would be easy to knock her out then.

"Come on!" he called out to Radarr, holding out his arm. A second later, he was running towards Master Cyclonis, slashing at whatever jumped out at him. Sometimes he was too slow and got more than a few scratches because of it. He hoped that he wouldn't turn into a heartless because of them.

Reaching Master Cyclonis, Aerrow aimed for her head, wanting to knock her out. Just as the blade was about to connect, her eyes opened fully and she looked at him. The next thing he knew, air was rushing out his lungs for the second time in as many minutes, his back against a wall. Aerrow could feel where she had grabbed his shirt. Okay, so she had much faster reactions now. There was a flash of red and then yells of surprise. Aerrow ran at her again. Since when could a Crystal split off and do more than one thing at a time?

She held up her other hand at him and he could see darkness swirling in her palm. Suddenly she literally snarled and glared at her foot – Radarr was there, biting her shin. She pointed her palm at Radarr and a wave of shadows shot at him. He yelped in pain as he was hit and he flew a few feet. It was then that Aerrow's blades smashed into Master Cyclonis' outstretched hand, making her drop the Crystal. To make sure, he stomped on it before it had stopped moving. He didn't wait to see what her reaction was; he ran straight to Radarr. Radarr was already woozily getting to his feet when Aerrow got there. He scooped him up into his arms before Radarr was dive-bombed by one of the flying heartless.

"You okay buddy?" he asked him. Radarr nodded and scrambled back onto his shoulders again.

"Blizzaga!" A flash of blue that wasn't from Finn's crossbow shot from the other side of the room and headed towards Master Cyclonis. It didn't hit; a heartless jumped in front of the attack before it got anywhere near her.

They had to attack in groups, Aerrow realised grimly. He didn't know if there were limits to how many heartless Master Cyclonis could call up but he knew they wouldn't be able to last long enough to find out. Or it could mean that once she was beaten, the heartless got completely out of control and more of them would come out of nowhere, one part of him thought pessimistically.

There was another shout –this time from Sora- and then the whole room flashed yellow. Stunned momentarily in surprise, Aerrow whipped around to see more natural smoke was coming from Master Cyclonis, her clothing burnt in a few places. She was shaking, her arms tense at her side. Her face was twisted up with a sneer, her eyes were flicking, never staying in one place for more than a second, and she was saying something under her breath. She didn't seem to be _doing_ anything though.

The heartless were backing off, not attacking anyone anymore and Aerrow wasn't sure if that was actually a good thing or a bad thing. He glanced at the others, who were warily approaching her and then at Master Cyclonis again. Was this what the fairytale had meant when the controller went insane?

Master Cyclonis reached behind her and pulled out her staff, still muttering. A flick of a finger and it elongated to its full length. Aerrow edged forward, waiting for whatever she would do. Before, Aerrow had to squint to see the darkness rising off her shoulders but now it could be seen easily, almost billowing as it rose. Aerrow adjusted the grip on his blades, feeling apprehensive; that didn't look good.

Goofy and Piper ran forward at the same time and Aerrow shared a look with Junko, who nodded. They started running forward as well, to see Goofy being blasted in the shield by another Crystal attack. Piper used that as a distraction to attack Master Cyclonis from her other side but with her now better reflexes, she blocked the first swipe. Piper was able to get in another two attacks before getting a blow to the head that sent her sprawling.

Aerrow aimed low at Master Cyclonis' legs – as expected, she jumped, though she did an upward sweep with her staff and he was only just able to block it. Junko was there to meet her before she could land and his punch sent her flying. Darkness caught her in mid-flight and thick tendrils shot out of it, homing in on everyone in the room. Aerrow dived out the way and then slashed at the one that had wrapped around Junko.

"Thanks," Junko said once he was free.

Aerrow smiled in response and then checked to see who else needed to be freed. No-one did because most of the main part was being destroyed by Sora quickly hacking at it and Finn having shot at the tendrils that had caught the others.

Angrily, Master Cyclonis raised a hand and darkness completely enveloped her hand, acting like a flame.

"Thundaga!" Another flash of light.

Just as he was able to see properly, Aerrow heard and felt something hit the floor. When his vision cleared, Aerrow saw Master Cyclonis' form on the ground, Sora standing over her, Keyblade glowing softly. She wasn't emitting any more darkness and the shadows in the room were already receding rapidly. In under a minute, the room had the same lighting as the corridor did. Looking closely at her, Aerrow could see her chest was moving up and down, showing she was still alive.

"Is that it?" Piper was rubbing at the spot she'd been hit tenderly, walking up to them.

Sora nodded. "She can't control the heartless anymore," he confirmed.

Aerrow's heartbeat was starting to return to normal and now that the adrenaline was slowly leaving, the scratches he'd gotten, among the scattering of bruises on his side and back were making themselves heard with louder voices.

Sora raised his Keyblade, pointing it skyward. "Curaga." Green light haloed around him and suddenly, Aerrow didn't feel so sore. Lifting his arm up (it still hurt to do that though), he was astonished to see that the cuts and scratches weren't there anymore. They didn't have any Crystals that could do anything close to that.

Piper stared at Master Cyclonis worriedly before turning back to the group. "We should leave soon – a lot of people probably heard that."

Aerrow felt a little bad for leaving Master Cyclonis where she was, but she'd be found eventually. He led the group out and was relieved that the door slid open.

Until he saw Dark Ace leaning on the opposite wall, arms crossed. Dark Ace flicked his eyes at Aerrow and Aerrow nodded. He was sure he imagined the slight relaxation of his shoulders. With no other action coming from the older man, Aerrow continued on leading the way out.

xOx

He tracked them visually until all of them had rounded the corner and then waited a few more seconds to make sure that they didn't double-back for some reason or another. When they didn't come back, Dark Ace opened the room and walked in.

He hurried over to Master Cyclonis' form and checked her pulse; it was strong and regular under his fingertips. Dark Ace straightened her out and then lifted her up in his arms, collecting her staff at the same time. She was lighter than what he expected; when was the last time he'd seen her eat? Master Cyclonis wasn't one to normally miss meals, even if she was in the middle of something, because her hunger would eventually distract her from work, maybe causing her to make mistakes. With the discovery of the heartless and her ability to control them, she eventually shut herself in any room and wouldn't come out for hours, becoming steadily more and more obsessed with them.

Dark Ace carried her to her room, his long strides meaning it only took a few minutes. He placed her on her bed, after awkwardly pulling the blanket back. He had just covered her when she stirred. Dark Ace stopped, not sure if he should leave or stay.

"Mmm..." Master Cyclonis' eyes opened and she blinked at him in confusion. "Dark Ace?" she said muzzily. He started breathing again, relief flooding him. It wasn't 'you' or 'Talon' but his name.

Dark Ace smiled at her, the one that only he allowed her to see and no-one else. "Welcome back."

xOx

They'd somehow gotten to where they'd hidden their skimmers without any incidents, despite their slightly torn and bloodied uniforms. Aerrow had a sneaking suspicion why but didn't tell the others. As he was getting on his skimmer and Radarr was settling into his co-pilot seat, Aerrow groaned at the thought of having to travel for over half the day before getting on the _Condor_ again. He checked on the others to make sure they were ready to fly and then drove off the ledge they were on. After the wings had come out, Aerrow enjoyed the feeling of the wind blowing past before heading north.

Maybe two hours later, the clouds beneath them churned and parted. Aerrow tensed, ready to begin doing some aerial aerobatics when the_ Condor_ revealed herself as the ship under the clouds.

Aerrow pressed the radio button hesitantly. "Stork?" Had Stork been caught and the Cyclonians were using their ship to lure them into a false sense of security?

"It's me," came the slightly panicky reply. Considering they were in Cyclonian territory, that would have been his normal response. "There aren't any Cyclonian's on the Condor – they didn't take one step on her."

Aerrow stared at the speaker in concern. "Er... Stork?"

"I'll explain once you get on."

He'd seen and heard what Stork was like when the _Condor_ wasn't in his control anymore and this wasn't it. It would be good to get his feet on the _Condor_ again but... Aerrow sighed, shook his head and then steered towards the hangar bay. His instincts were saying that everything was okay and if he was wrong, they could easily fight a couple of Cyclonians.

The trip to the bridge was a little stressful, straining to hear if there was anything there that wasn't meant to be (after doing that for two hours constantly in Cyclonia), but nothing jumped out at them. Palming the door open, all Aerrow could see was Stork, driving.

"What are you doing here?" They hadn't sent any messages to him, and wouldn't have been able to anyway, with the distance. There was no reason why Stork was in Cyclonian territory.

"Someone threw a Message Crystal onto the runway," Stork explained, not turning to look at them. "The voice was distorted," he said wryly, "but I was able to reverse the changes." A pause. "It was from Dark Ace."

Aerrow blew the air from his lungs, not completely surprised. He'd thought that could have been the reason why they hadn't been stopped or caught; who else could control all the Talons apart from Master Cyclonis?

"You couldn't have believed that," Aerrow mused. A message from Dark Ace saying that no Talons would attack him? That easily sounded like it was a trap. Even if Stork had tested Dark Ace's words, it didn't mean that if he flew further into Cyclonian territory, they would jump him then.

Finn snickered. "You were worried about us!" he said gleefully.

Stork moved in a way that could have been a shrug. "Yeah, well..."

Any teasing Aerrow would have done was cut short by a bright light appearing out of nowhere. Everyone was staring at him. The familiar weight of his blades on his shoulders left and he whirled around to see his blades floating in mid-air, glowing and sparkling that didn't have anything to do with a Crystal. A second, softer light came from his right. Turning, Aerrow could see that the tip of Sora's Keyblade had lights twining around it. A few seconds later, both stopped glowing and his blades drifted back into his hands.

"What... just happened?" There was awe in Junko's voice.

Sora put his hands behind his head, keyblade disappearing and grinned at them. "A new path has been made," he said mysteriously.

Donald looked around and then at Sora. "We gotta go."

He nodded sadly. "Yeah."

"Wait, you know how to get back to your terra?" Aerrow asked them. He'd been worrying about them for nothing?

Sora shook his head, smiling softly. "I'm still trying to find that but I'll get back one day."

Aerrow frowned. So the technology they used to get on the_ Condor_ wasn't exact. Were they just going to keep on using it until they finally reached their home? "There isn't another way to get home?"

"Nah." Sora waited until Donald and Goofy were standing next to him. "This way, we get to meet loads of people and make new friends." That was an upside but if they couldn't control where they went...

"We'll come back to visit," Goofy said, waving. What? All three of them were waving, saying goodbye and then they disappeared with as much warning as they had arrived. Aerrow blinked and then covered his face with a hand, sighing. He hoped they would come back _soon_ so that they could get all their questions answered.

He shook his head and walked up to the window, watching as the clouds sped by under them. They would have to get out of Cyclonian skies quickly - who knew how long the truce would last? Once they were back in safer skies, he'd help Stork go through his books to see what they could find about the Keyblade Master.

After all that had happened over the past week, they all deserved a vacation. "Who wants to go to Tropica?"

The question was met with a unanimous cheer.

The first thing he was going to do, however, was go to his room and _sleep_ in his bed for the next day. He doubted the others were going to do much different.  


* * *

**Complete**

* * *

:D Longest chapter I've written!

;P I remember that quote thing about the arrows coming from Xena - I couldn't find if there was an official saying.

The scene with Dark Ace and Master Cyclonis? The _whole_ reason why this fic has friendship as a genre. :3

XD;; You can tell I'm not used to ending fics.

I may or may not have a sequel to this. It'll depend on how my planning skills go.

Thanks for staying with me and reading this. :)


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